Study By Share Our Strengths Says Student Hunger Is 3rd Biggest Problem For Teachers (VIDEO)

According to a nationwide survey conducted by Share Our Strengths, the third largest challenge that elementary school teachers face is student hunger.

Bill Shore, chairman of community wealth ventures, told CNN that the lack of food directly affects their academic performance.

"Hunger is not only a child health problem and a poverty problem, it's an education issue."

When CNN asked Stacey Frakes, an instructional coach at Greenville Elementary School, how often she fed her students, she said she helped to pay for their meals at least once a week.

"Students would come in and they would tell me that they were hungry or they would be upset and when you would inquire what was going on, they would tell you that they were hungry."

WATCH:

Comments

[kinger50]

01:49 PM on 03/17/2011

I think teachers can deduct around $250 on their taxes. I know so many teachers who have food at school for hungry children that it makes me sick. Free and reduced breakfast and lunches but kids don't know they are hungry until they are. I think there is a hidden "budget" of millions of dollars where teachers feed kids in the classroom with snacks etc. just to get them through the school day.

[jeff albin]

07:16 PM on 03/04/2011

Is unhealthy food better than food?. Just a question.
http://loudfartnoremorse.blogspot.com/2011/02/does-your-school-have-eating-disorder.html

[ProletarianRenegade]

03:14 PM on 03/02/2011

One more reason why "merit pay" (merit meaning whether or not the admins and principal like you) won't fix a damn thing in our schools. What a disgrace America.

[Christopher Bowen]

11:07 AM on 03/02/2011

Hmm, raising the tax rate from about 34% to 39% on those that won't notice it, or subsidizing programs that feed the week and the poorest among us. Go talk to a kid who is constantly hungry, look him in the eye, and tell him how badly you need your tax breaks. Explain the value of having government so small it can drown in a bathtub. I'm sure he'll see it your way.

[whyus]

12:44 AM on 03/02/2011

Even in a so called affluent community, I "loaned" out money to some of the kids in my classroom so they could buy lunch.

[paddy523]

11:35 PM on 03/01/2011

this is probably one of the saddest things I've seen! honestly I don't know what sickens me more, that theses reps allowed this to happen!! or some of these callous post's by creatures who call themselves human!!!

[iworshipthedoggod]

08:58 PM on 03/01/2011

wow.browsing some of these comments it is pretty shamefull that some people actually have a problem with feeding hungry children.its hungry children!enough said.

[Shana Donohue]

02:19 PM on 03/01/2011

Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely. Often, kids don't even know that they are hungry - because they are so used to the feeling? - and they end up acting out in other ways. I know this true even for me, and I've been out of high school for a long time. When the brain is hungry, you forget about thinking. When a kid's body is struggling to maintain itself, the last priority is doing math problems!

[kinger50]

01:37 PM on 03/17/2011

This is so true. I think that social services need to be funded in parallel with the academic budget so each can be tracked separately. The social services often required to educate children blur the lines regarding what academic education really costs. When we look at one big number that includes food, day care, tutoring, social work etc., we will continually be asking: Why does education in America cost so much? The sad fact is that many children "fail to thrive" due to issues like hunger and neglect unrelated to school curriculum, testing, or teacher quality. If we set up social services along side of education I think the issues become clearer. As long as we call everything "education" we will continue to be misled by the numbers that are so easy to manipulate.

[Shana Donohue]

03:06 PM on 03/17/2011

Busses, heat, electricity, food, water (in places where the pipes are lead!), paper, pencils...

Here in Massachusetts, the NCLB exam is the MCAS. To develop the exam, print it, distribute it, grade it, re-develop, re-print, re-distribute, re-grade... it's a billion dollar industry. And every test day is another day taken away from learning. So much money is put into these exams and is counted towards "education expenses".

[Jester Girl]

12:51 PM on 02/28/2011

Why aren't children being fed before they go to school? This is hard to understand. My parent's were poor but I never went to school without breakfast.

[am10]

01:49 PM on 02/28/2011

Get ready to get pounced on. Suggesting that someone stand on their own isn't welcome here.

[undsoweiter]

02:58 PM on 02/28/2011

Suggesting that someone stand on their own has not one thing to do with it.
If a child is hungry we have a moral obligation to feed that child.
If a person is sick or injured, we have a moral obligation to heal that person.
If a person is old, we have a moral obligation to support that person as if he or she were our family.
If we do not do these the things, then we give up the right to call ourselves people.
If we do not do these things we are only animals.

[kinger50]

01:54 PM on 03/17/2011

Why aren't children being fed before they go to school?
1. Generational poverty.
2. Situational poverty.
3. Lack of parenting skills.
4. Lack of educationed parents.
5. Immediate gratification and lack of planning.

95% of households in America have TVs even when there is food insecurity. When you have no future you spend your money as you go, on gas, electricity, rent...you don't save it for groceries next week after you have planned your meals. That mentality is solidly middle class and there are fewer who are middle class now.

[Andrew Brinkworth]

12:02 PM on 02/28/2011

When you take away Reproductive Education and Reproductive Freedom.
Every Child Becomes Your Responsibility

[Peace Walker]

09:00 PM on 02/28/2011

Well argued. F & F!

[Andrew Brinkworth]

11:57 AM on 02/28/2011

When they close Planned Parenthood they also take away a respected professional who can tell young people why they shouldn't have children.

They also don't want young girls educated on how to have a healthy pregnancy. They don't want lower income families to have their unborn children checked for diseases or disformities.

They don't want low income mothers to be educated because they don't want them to influence other girls.

They also don't want the children cared for by medical professionals after it's born.

My question is this though. If I tell you that you must have a baby, how is it not my responsibility?!

How does this do anything but permanently create a welfare class in our country?

[TFT]

05:53 PM on 02/28/2011

Who are "they?"

[bleubunny]

08:54 PM on 03/31/2011

Who do you think. Seriously.

[Andrew Brinkworth]

11:57 AM on 02/28/2011

As the child grows, they understand they will never be able to pay off their debt to the hospital.

When the child goes is in elementary school, the economy hits a recession and the girl loses her job. It becomes a struggle to feed three people because the girls mother can't work the 70 hour weeks anymore because businesses don't pay for overtime anymore. They can afford one meal a day for all three of them.

All social safety net programs have been cut due to the recession so they cannot get help by foodstamps or other programs that helped working families in the past. Conseratives tell them to work harder.

The child was receiving some food through headstart, but that was turned off too, because say conservatives, your child is not my responsibility.

So here is the end of the massive story.
Conservatives eliminate reproductive education in schools that would prevent pregnancy.
Conservatives eliminate reproductive education in communities when they close Planned Parenthood.
Conservatives eliminate reproductive choice when they close Planned Parenthood.
So they don't want to young girls educated on how to prevent pregnancy, but they don't want unprepared pregnancies to be aborted.

[Andrew Brinkworth]

11:56 AM on 02/28/2011

The girl has no choice she get's a letter from her mother and get's a license to work. She starts to make payments to the hospital for the birth cost at $250 a month. She will be paid off in a little over three years.

There are no parenting classes in the community, Planned Parenthood is closed.
There are no childhood nutriction classes in the community because, Planned Parenthood is closed.

There is also no insurance because she can't afford it on the $300 a week she makes at her job, plus she has to pay for childcare because she and her mother both have to work to make ends meet.

There is no statewide health program for children because conservatives didn't feel that they should have to take care of someone else's sick kid.

There are on innoculations for early childhood development, because the choice is that or food that week.

When serious illness strikes they go to the emergency room, with an average bill $100 for the visit up to $1000 for tests.

[Andrew Brinkworth]

11:56 AM on 02/28/2011

As the baby develops there is no prenatal care available because her mother can't afford the $800 a month medical insurance and even if she could scrape the money together they wouldn't be covered because the baby is now a pre-existing condition.

There used to be prenatal care offered in the community but that's gone because Planned Parenthood is closed.

No Sonogram to check for early development problems.
No Nutritional education to help the girl and her child develop together.
NO blood tests to check for hereditary diseases, which would also mean that the child was born with a disease, it would never be eligable for health insurance in it's lifetime due to it's pre-existing condition.

They visit adoption agencies about putting the child up for adoption. They are told that the child will most likely end up in foster care because of the lack of prenatal care and the fact that she is a minority.

They have no choice but to keep the baby.

When the time comes they go to the emergency room to have their baby.

The baby is delivered by a first year medical student because they don't have an ob/gyn and the one on staff is too busy.

The baby against all odds is born healthy. The mother is given 12 whole hours to recouperate before she, her baby, a pamphlet on nutrition, and a bill for $7,500 is sent home.

[Andrew Brinkworth]

11:54 AM on 02/28/2011

So let me get the timeline straight and square it with the laws that conservatives want to see passed.

A young African American girl, we'll say 15 years old is getting pressure from her boyfriend to have sex. She doesn't know what to do. Her mother works 60-70 hours a week at minimum wage to try to make ends meet so she doesn't have time to be a parent.

The girl asks her health teacher for help but the teacher can't give reproduction education advice because she was banned from teaching it by conservatives.

There is no reproductive education in the community because Planned Parenthood was closed because all it did was "Kill Babies".

She is not religious so she doesn't go to a church because she doesn't know any.

She gives in to her boyfriend.

Three weeks later she takes a store bought test and finds out she's pregnant.

Her mother is angry but accepts the situation, they discuss options. Keep the baby or put it up for adoption. Abortion while legal is not an option because Planned Parenthood is closed and they no other doctor in the community will perform the procedure because the last doctor was killed for "Killing Babies" by a conservative.

When her school finds out she is expelled because she is considered a bad influence on the other girls.